Why doesn't async angular unit-test find DOM element?

I've got a failing asynchronous angular component DOM test but it's synchronous equivalent fails and I don't understand why.

Here's the jasmine test:

describe('Availability Component', () => {

    let fixture: ComponentFixture<AvailabilityComponent>;

    const absenceService = jasmine.createSpyObj('AbsenceService', ['findAbsences']);
    absenceService.findAbsences.and.returnValue(of([{}]));

    beforeEach(async(() => {
        TestBed.configureTestingModule({
            declarations: [AvailabilityComponent],
            imports: [CalendarModule.forRoot()],
            providers: [{provide: AbsenceService, useValue: absenceService}]
        }).compileComponents();
    }));

    beforeEach(() => {
        fixture = TestBed.createComponent(AvailabilityComponent);
    });

    const printAbsenceReasons = function () {
        console.log(fixture.debugElement.queryAll(By.css('.calendarAbsence'))
        .map(e => e.nativeElement.textContent)
        .join(','));
    };

    it('should synchronously find absences in calendar view', () => {
        fixture.detectChanges();

        console.log('synchronous test');
        printAbsenceReasons();
    });

    it('should  asynchronously find absences in calendar view', fakeAsync(() => {
        fixture.detectChanges();
        tick();
        fixture.detectChanges();
        tick();

        console.log('asynchronous test');
        printAbsenceReasons();
    }));
});

Which creates the correct output in the synchronous case but incorrect in the asynchronous case:

LOG: 'processing absences'
HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.13.4): Executed 0 of 51 SUCCESS (0 secs / 0 secs)
LOG: 'synchronous test'
HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.13.4): Executed 0 of 51 SUCCESS (0 secs / 0 secs)
LOG: 'A,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,'
HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.13.4): Executed 0 of 51 SUCCESS (0 secs / 0 secs)
ERROR: 'Spec 'Availability Component should synchronously find absences in calendar view' has no expectations.'
HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.13.4): Executed 0 of 51 SUCCESS (0 secs / 0 secs)
LOG: 'processing absences'
HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.13.4): Executed 1 of 51 SUCCESS (0 secs / 0 secs)
LOG: 'asynchronous test'
HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.13.4): Executed 1 of 51 SUCCESS (0 secs / 0 secs)
LOG: ''
HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.13.4): Executed 1 of 51 SUCCESS (0 secs / 0 secs)
ERROR: 'Spec 'Availability Component should  asynchronously find absences in calendar view' has no expectations.'

I'm not sure if this has something to do with the angular-calendar component I'm using or if it's a more basic problem with my test code.

For reference here is my component, template and service code:

@Component({
    selector: 'app-availability',
    templateUrl: './availability.component.html',
    styleUrls: ['availability.component.scss']
})
export class AvailabilityComponent implements OnInit {
    viewDate: Date = new Date();
    absenceEvents: CalendarEvent[] = [];

    constructor(private absenceService: AbsenceService) {
    }

    ngOnInit() {
        this.getAbsences();
    }

    getAbsences() {
        this.absenceService.findAbsences()
        .subscribe(ignored => {
            console.log('processing absences');
            this.absenceEvents = [{
                start: new Date(2018, 3, 29), title: 'A'
            }];
        });
    }

    getAbsence(events: CalendarEvent[]) {
        return events[0] ? events[0].title : '';
    }
}

template code:

<div>
    <div>
        <mwl-calendar-month-view
            [viewDate]="viewDate"
            [events]="absenceEvents"
            [cellTemplate]="availabilityCellTemplate">
        </mwl-calendar-month-view>
    </div>
    <ng-template #availabilityCellTemplate let-day="day">
        <div class="calendarAbsence">{{ getAbsence(day.events) }}</div>
    </ng-template>
</div>  

service code:

@Injectable()
export class AbsenceService {

    private url = environment.APP_SHIFT_SERVICE_BASE_URL + '/api/absences';

    constructor(private http: HttpClient) {
    }

    findAbsences(): Observable<Absence[]> {
        console.error('Actual findAbsences() called');
        return this.http.get<Absence[]>(this.url);
    }
}

Unfortunately this seems to have something to do with the fakeAsync zone in particular and not asynchronous tests in particular.

I've managed to get a working asynchronous test to work with async instead of fakeAsync:

it('should asynchronously find absences in calendar view', async(() => {
        fixture.detectChanges();

        fixture.whenStable().then(() => {
            console.log('asynchronous test');
            printAbsenceReasons(fixture);

            expect(getAbsenceElements(fixture).length).toEqual(35);
        });
    });
}));

I've debugged both the failing fakeAsync and the successful synchronous tests. They both call a method called getMonthView in a library "calendar-utils" by the same author as "angular-calendar": https://github.com/mattlewis92/calendar-utils/blob/master/src/calendar-utils.ts

In this method both the Date parameters and also the other Date computations itself seem to go very wrong.

I can only assume currently that it's related to this known issue in zone.js. I'm on Angular 5.2, but I assume its still related. In any case I'm sure that my test code is essentially correct, but the problem lies elsewhere.